Hebrews 9:18-20

9:18 So even the first covenant was inaugurated with blood. ¹  9:19 For when Moses had spoken every command to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats with water and scarlet wool and hyssop and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, 9:20 and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that God has commanded you to keep.” ² 

Exodus 24:3-11

24:3 Moses came ³  and told the people all the Lord’s words ⁴  and all the decisions. All the people answered together, ⁵  “We are willing to do ⁶  all the words that the Lord has said,” 24:4 and Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. Early in the morning he built ⁷  an altar at the foot ⁸  of the mountain and arranged ⁹  twelve standing stones ¹⁰  – according to the twelve tribes of Israel. 24:5 He sent young Israelite men, ¹¹  and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls for peace offerings ¹²  to the Lord. 24:6 Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and half of the blood he splashed on the altar. ¹³  24:7 He took the Book of the Covenant ¹⁴  and read it aloud ¹⁵  to the people, and they said, “We are willing to do and obey ¹⁶  all that the Lord has spoken.” 24:8 So Moses took the blood and splashed it on ¹⁷  the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant ¹⁸  that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

24:9 Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up, ¹⁹  24:10 and they saw ²⁰  the God of Israel. Under his feet ²¹  there was something like a pavement ²²  made of sapphire, clear like the sky itself. ²³  24:11 But he did not lay a hand ²⁴  on the leaders of the Israelites, so they saw God, ²⁵  and they ate and they drank. ²⁶ 

Exodus 34:10

34:10 He said, “See, I am going to make ²⁷  a covenant before all your people. I will do wonders such as have not been done ²⁸  in all the earth, nor in any nation. All the people among whom you live will see the work of the Lord, for it is a fearful thing that I am doing with you. ²⁹ 

Exodus 34:27-28

34:27 The Lord said to Moses, “Write down ³⁰  these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” 34:28 So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; ³¹  he did not eat bread, and he did not drink water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments. ³² 

Deuteronomy 5:2-3

5:2 The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. 5:3 He ³³  did not make this covenant with our ancestors ³⁴  but with us, we who are here today, all of us living now.

Deuteronomy 29:1

Narrative Interlude

29:1 (28:69) ³⁵  These are the words of the covenant that the Lord commanded Moses to make with the people of Israel in the land of Moab, in addition to the covenant he had made with them at Horeb. ³⁶ 

Deuteronomy 29:12

29:12 so that you may enter by oath into the covenant the Lord your God is making with you today. ³⁷ 

Galatians 3:15-19

Inheritance Comes from Promises and not Law

3:15 Brothers and sisters, ³⁸  I offer an example from everyday life: ³⁹  When a covenant ⁴⁰  has been ratified, ⁴¹  even though it is only a human contract, no one can set it aside or add anything to it. 3:16 Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his descendant. ⁴²  Scripture ⁴³  does not say, “and to the descendants,” ⁴⁴  referring to many, but “and to your descendant,” ⁴⁵  referring to one, who is Christ. 3:17 What I am saying is this: The law that came four hundred thirty years later does not cancel a covenant previously ratified by God, ⁴⁶  so as to invalidate the promise. 3:18 For if the inheritance is based on the law, it is no longer based on the promise, but God graciously gave ⁴⁷  it to Abraham through the promise.

3:19 Why then was the law given? ⁴⁸  It was added ⁴⁹  because of transgressions, ⁵⁰  until the arrival of the descendant ⁵¹  to whom the promise had been made. It was administered ⁵²  through angels by an intermediary. ⁵³ 

Galatians 4:24

4:24 These things may be treated as an allegory, ⁵⁴  for these women represent two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai bearing children for slavery; this is Hagar.

[9:18]  ¹ sn The Greek text reinforces this by negating the opposite (“not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood”), but this double negation is not used in contemporary English.

[9:20]  ² tn Grk “which God commanded for you (or in your case).”

[24:3]  ³ sn The general consensus among commentators is that this refers to Moses’ coming from the mountain after he made the ascent in 20:21. Here he came and told them the laws (written in 20:22-23:33), and of the call to come up to Yahweh.

[24:3]  ⁴ sn The Decalogue may not be included here because the people had heard those commands themselves earlier.

[24:3]  ⁵ tn The text simply has “one voice” (קוֹל אֶחָד, qol ’ekhad); this is an adverbial accusative of manner, telling how the people answered – “in one voice,” or unanimously (see GKC 375 §118.q).

[24:3]  ⁶ tn The verb is the imperfect tense (נַעֲשֶׂה, na’aseh), although the form could be classified as a cohortative. If the latter, they would be saying that they are resolved to do what God said. If it is an imperfect, then the desiderative would make the most sense: “we are willing to do.” They are not presumptuously saying they are going to do all these things.

[24:4]  ⁷ tn The two preterites quite likely form a verbal hendiadys (the verb “to get up early” is frequently in such constructions). Literally it says, “and he got up early [in the morning] and he built”; this means “early [in the morning] he built.” The first verb becomes the adverb.

[24:4]  ⁸ tn “under.”

[24:4]  ⁹ tn The verb “arranged” is not in the Hebrew text but has been supplied to clarify exactly what Moses did with the twelve stones.

[24:4]  ¹⁰ tn The thing numbered is found in the singular when the number is plural – “twelve standing-stone.” See GKC 433 §134.f. The “standing-stone” could be a small piece about a foot high, or a huge column higher than men. They served to commemorate treaties (Gen 32), or visions (Gen 28) or boundaries, or graves. Here it will function with the altar as a place of worship.

[24:5]  ¹¹ tn The construct has “young men of the Israelites,” and so “Israelite” is a genitive that describes them.

[24:5]  ¹² tn The verbs and their respective accusatives are cognates. First, they offered up burnt offerings (see Lev 1), which is וַיַּעֲלוּ עֹלֹת (vayya’alu ’olot); then they sacrificed young bulls as peace sacrifices (Lev 3), which is in Hebrew וַיִּזְבְּחוּ זְבָחִים (vayyizbÿkhu zÿvakhim). In the first case the cognate accusative is the direct object; in the second it is an adverbial accusative of product. See on this covenant ritual H. M. Kamsler, “The Blood Covenant in the Bible,” Dor le Dor 6 (1977): 94-98; E. W. Nicholson, “The Covenant Ritual in Exodus 24:3-8,” VT 32 (1982): 74-86.

[24:6]  ¹³ sn The people and Yahweh through this will be united by blood, for half was spattered on the altar and the other half spattered on/toward the people (v. 8).

[24:7]  ¹⁴ tn The noun “book” would be the scroll just written containing the laws of chaps. 20-23. On the basis of this scroll the covenant would be concluded here. The reading of this book would assure the people that it was the same that they had agreed to earlier. But now their statement of willingness to obey would be more binding, because their promise would be confirmed by a covenant of blood.

[24:7]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “read it in the ears of.”

[24:7]  ¹⁶ tn A second verb is now added to the people’s response, and it is clearly an imperfect and not a cohortative, lending support for the choice of desiderative imperfect in these commitments – “we want to obey.” This was their compliance with the covenant.

[24:8]  ¹⁷ tn Given the size of the congregation, the preposition might be rendered here “toward the people” rather than on them (all).

[24:8]  ¹⁸ sn The construct relationship “the blood of the covenant” means “the blood by which the covenant is ratified” (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 254). The parallel with the inauguration of the new covenant in the blood of Christ is striking (see, e.g., Matt 26:28, 1 Cor 11:25). When Jesus was inaugurating the new covenant, he was bringing to an end the old.

[24:9]  ¹⁹ tn The verse begins with “and Moses went up, and Aaron….” This verse may supply the sequel to vv. 1-2. At any rate, God was now accepting them into his presence.

[24:10]  ²⁰ sn S. R. Driver (Exodus, 254) wishes to safeguard the traditional idea that God could not be seen by reading “they saw the place where the God of Israel stood” so as not to say they saw God. But according to U. Cassuto there is not a great deal of difference between “and they saw the God” and “the Lord God appeared” (Exodus, 314). He thinks that the word “God” is used instead of “Yahweh” to say that a divine phenomenon was seen. It is in the LXX that they add “the place where he stood.” In v. 11b the LXX has “and they appeared in the place of God.” See James Barr, “Theophany and Anthropomorphism in the Old Testament,” VTSup 7 (1959): 31-33. There is no detailed description here of what they saw (cf. Isa 6; Ezek 1). What is described amounts to what a person could see when prostrate.

[24:10]  ²¹ sn S. R. Driver suggests that they saw the divine Glory, not directly, but as they looked up from below, through what appeared to be a transparent blue sapphire pavement (Exodus, 254).

[24:10]  ²² tn Or “tiles.”

[24:10]  ²³ tn Heb “and like the body of heaven for clearness.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven” or “sky” depending on the context; here, where sapphire is mentioned (a blue stone) “sky” seems more appropriate, since the transparent blueness of the sapphire would appear like the blueness of the cloudless sky.

[24:11]  ²⁴ tn Heb “he did not stretch out his hand,” i.e., to destroy them.

[24:11]  ²⁵ tn The verb is חָזָה (khazah); it can mean “to see, perceive” or “see a vision” as the prophets did. The LXX safeguarded this by saying, “appeared in the place of God.” B. Jacob says they beheld – prophetically, religiously (Exodus, 746) – but the meaning of that is unclear. The fact that God did not lay a hand on them – to kill them – shows that they saw something that they never expected to see and live. Some Christian interpreters have taken this to refer to a glorious appearance of the preincarnate Christ, the second person of the Trinity. They saw the brilliance of this manifestation – but not the detail. Later, Moses will still ask to see God’s glory – the real presence behind the phenomena.

[24:11]  ²⁶ sn This is the covenant meal, the peace offering, that they are eating there on the mountain. To eat from the sacrifice meant that they were at peace with God, in covenant with him. Likewise, in the new covenant believers draw near to God on the basis of sacrifice, and eat of the sacrifice because they are at peace with him, and in Christ they see the Godhead revealed.

[34:10]  ²⁷ tn Here again is a use of the futur instans participle; the deictic particle plus the pronoun precedes the participle, showing what is about to happen.

[34:10]  ²⁸ tn The verb here is בָּרָא (bara’, “to create”). The choice of this verb is to stress that these wonders would be supernaturally performed, for the verb is used only with God as the subject.

[34:10]  ²⁹ sn The idea is that God will be doing awesome things in dealing with them, i.e., to fulfill his program.

[34:27]  ³⁰ tn Once again the preposition with the suffix follows the imperative, adding some emphasis to the subject of the verb.

[34:28]  ³¹ tn These too are adverbial in relation to the main clause, telling how long Moses was with Yahweh on the mountain.

[34:28]  ³² tn Heb “the ten words,” though “commandments” is traditional.

[5:3]  ³³ tn Heb “the Lord.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[5:3]  ³⁴ tn Heb “fathers.”

[29:1]  ³⁵ sn Beginning with 29:1, the verse numbers through 29:29 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 29:1 ET = 28:69 HT, 29:2 ET = 29:1 HT, 29:3 ET = 29:2 HT, etc., through 29:29 ET = 29:28 HT. With 30:1 the verse numbers in the ET and HT are again the same.

[29:1]  ³⁶ sn Horeb is another name for Mount Sinai (which some English versions substitute here for clarity, cf. NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).

[29:12]  ³⁷ tn Heb “for you to pass on into the covenant of the Lord your God and into his oath, which the Lord your God is cutting with you today.”

[3:15]  ³⁸ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:11.

[3:15]  ³⁹ tn Grk “I speak according to man,” referring to the illustration that follows.

[3:15]  ⁴⁰ tn The same Greek word, διαθήκη (diaqhkh), can mean either “covenant” or “will,” but in this context the former is preferred here because Paul is discussing in vv. 16-18 the Abrahamic covenant.

[3:15]  ⁴¹ tn Or “has been put into effect.”

[3:16]  ⁴² tn Grk “his seed,” a figurative extension of the meaning of σπέρμα (sperma) to refer to descendants (L&N 10.29).

[3:16]  ⁴³ tn Grk “It”; the referent (the scripture) has been specified in the translation for clarity. The understood subject of the verb λέγει (legei) could also be “He” (referring to God) as the one who spoke the promise to Abraham.

[3:16]  ⁴⁴ tn Grk “to seeds.” See the note on “descendant” earlier in this verse. Here the term is plural; the use of the singular in the OT text cited later in this verse is crucial to Paul’s argument.

[3:16]  ⁴⁵ tn See the note on “descendant” earlier in this verse.

[3:17]  ⁴⁶ tc Most mss (D F G I 0176 0278 Ï it sy) read “ratified by God in Christ” whereas the omission of “in Christ” is the reading in Ì⁴⁶ א A B C P Ψ 6 33 81 1175 1739 1881 2464 pc co. The shorter reading is strongly supported by the ms evidence, and it is probable that a copyist inserted the words as an interpretive gloss. However, this form of the “in Christ” expression is somewhat atypical in the corpus Paulinum (εἰς Χριστόν [ei" Criston] rather than ἐν Χριστῷ [en Cristw]), a fact which tempers one’s certainty about the shorter reading. Nevertheless, the expression is used more in Galatians than in any other of Paul’s letters (Gal 2:16; 3:24, 27), and may have been suggested by such texts to early copyists.

[3:18]  ⁴⁷ tn On the translation “graciously gave” for χαρίζομαι (carizomai) see L&N 57.102.

[3:19]  ⁴⁸ tn Grk “Why then the law?”

[3:19]  ⁴⁹ tc For προσετέθη (proseteqh) several Western mss have ἐτέθη (eteqh, “it was established”; so D* F G it Ir^lat Ambst Spec). The net effect of this reading, in conjunction with the largely Western reading of πράξεων (praxewn) for παραβάσεων (parabasewn), seems to be a very positive assessment of the law. But there are compelling reasons for rejecting this reading: (1) externally, it is provincial and relatively late; (2) internally: (a) transcriptionally, there seems to be a much higher transcriptional probability that a scribe would try to smooth over Paul’s harsh saying here about the law than vice versa; (b) intrinsically: [1] Paul has already argued that the law came after the promise (vv. 15-18), indicating, more than likely, its temporary nature; [2] the verb “was added” in v. 19 (προσετέθη) is different from the verb in v. 15 (ἐπιδιατάσσεται, epidiatassetai); virtually all exegetes recognize this as an intentional linguistic shift on Paul’s part in order not to contradict his statement in v. 15; [3] the temper of 3:1–4:7 is decidedly against a positive statement about the Torah’s role in Heilsgeschichte.

[3:19]  ⁵⁰ tc παραδόσεων (paradosewn; “traditions, commandments”) is read by D*, while the vast majority of witnesses read παραβάσεων (parabasewn, “transgressions”). D’s reading makes little sense in this context. πράξεων (praxewn, “of deeds”) replaces παραβάσεων in Ì⁴⁶ F G it Ir^lat Ambst Spec. The wording is best taken as going with νόμος (nomo"; “Why then the law of deeds?”), as is evident by the consistent punctuation in the later witnesses. But such an expression is unpauline and superfluous; it was almost certainly added by some early scribe(s) to soften the blow of Paul’s statement.

[3:19]  ⁵¹ tn Grk “the seed.” See the note on the first occurrence of the word “descendant” in 3:16.

[3:19]  ⁵² tn Or “was ordered.” L&N 31.22 has “was put into effect” here.

[3:19]  ⁵³ tn Many modern translations (NASB, NIV, NRSV) render this word (μεσίτης, mesith"; here and in v. 20) as “mediator,” but this conveys a wrong impression in contemporary English. If this is referring to Moses, he certainly did not “mediate” between God and Israel but was an intermediary on God’s behalf. Moses was not a mediator, for example, who worked for compromise between opposing parties. He instead was God’s representative to his people who enabled them to have a relationship, but entirely on God’s terms.

[4:24]  ⁵⁴ tn Grk “which things are spoken about allegorically.” Paul is not saying the OT account is an allegory, but rather that he is constructing an allegory based on the OT account.